Politics Home | PM Says It Is “Staggering” And “Unforgiveable” He Wasn’t Told About Mandelson Vetting Failure

(Alamy UK)

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The Prime Minister said on Friday that it was “staggering” and “unforgivable”.

Starmer’s position is coming under renewed pressure after The Guardian revealed on Thursday that Mandelson had been appointed UK ambassador to the US in 2024 despite failing his security vetting. 

No 10 said that the Foreign Office was responsible for the vetting process and overturned the failed security vetting without telling the Prime Minister or any other minister.

Last night, the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, was sacked after he was understood to have lost the confidence of both Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. 

While Robbins has not yet spoken publicly about the move, Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Labour MP Emily Thornberry, has requested that the former senior official appear before the select committee on Tuesday to give evidence. 

Downing Street added that Starmer had been first made aware of Mandelson’s failed vetting earlier this week.

“I was not told that he had failed security vetting, no minister was told… No 10 wasn’t told, that is completely unacceptable,” the PM said this morning.

“It is totally unacceptable that the Prime Minister making an appointment is not told that security vetting has been failed.”

Starmer said he would “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency” to Parliament on Monday when he plans to correct previous statements he made to the House of Commons about Mandelson’s appointment.

Also speaking this morning, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, said that he had suspended the Foreign Office’s ability to overturn security advice and launched an urgent investigation into how incidents like that could have taken place across government.

Mandelson was sacked in September amid growing pressure over his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The former Labour cabinet minister is currently being investigated by the police over allegations that he leaked confidential government documents to Epstein while in office.